Nollaig

I've only read one Murakami book, Norweigan Wood. I hated it. It seemed utterly pointless and (mildly) shocking for the sake of being shocking. I've asked people numerous times what makes his books so good, but it seems to be some mystical, unquantifable quality because nobody has actually managed to tell me. I've been meaning to give another of his books a go, in case NW was a fluke but I honestly just don't think I'm smart enough to 'get' whatever it is that makes him apparently such a good writer.

Awesome! Glad you enjoyed it It's been sitting on my TBR for a while now.

So far today I have read: 268 pages of The Legacy Of Heorot by Larry Niven. Not overly impressed, but I'm most of the way through so I want to finish for finishing's sake 103 pages of The Last Leaves Falling by Sarah Benwell, which I'm really enjoying. I'm gonna read a bit more tonight, but that brings my total so far to: 691 pages.

Sounds awesome! Great review. Going on the the wishlist!

I've heard of Disgrace but never read it. I might, after reading your review Agree with you on The Sense Of An Ending - really unique and special little book, only read it a few months ago.

Blustery and sunny, not too warm!

I don't have any There are authors I revisit every time they release something new (Anna McPartlin), authors I will always try something new by even though I didn't always like their previous stuff (Holly Black, Patrick Ness), but I rarely revisit an author enough to classify them as a favourite. I guess Anna McPartlin would count as one, but she's the only one I can think of!

Nope and nope. But I like the idea of creepy alien creatures terrorizing human colonies, because apparently I am sadistic (and/or masochistic, depending on whether I join a colony?! ) I've started reading it and so far it seems pretty good. The icky stuff doesn't bother me. R.e. the thing:

I'm not normally into Sci-Fi (though I'd like to get more into it). The Legacy of Heorot sounds really good, although I know Pontalba didn't like it.... but that's still two against one with yourself Bobbly and Steve both liking it... soooo I think I'm gonna give it a go.

Yeah I find that, I often come away from short stories just wanting more. If you've any suggestions for good short stories, let me know I need to catch up on reviews, I've two to write again now and I suspect by the end of the day that will be up to three!!

I started reading The Last Leaves Falling by Sarah Benwell. So far, so very good!

That sounds kinda gross I am now curious about The Thing though! Hope your next read is friendlier

I had yesterday off, so my weekend started Thursday evening with dinner out at an American food place (had barbecue chicken and mississippi mud pie!) followed by a Penneys (Primark) shopping spree, during which I bought quite a few practical things (tights, facecloths, socks, a top for my upcoming interview) but also some unnecessary stuff (new bedsheets, string of lights for one of my bookshelves, some scarves). It was lovely. I'm taking it fairly easy this weekend as my plans for it fell through. I spent a few hours yesterday tidying my room, and while it's not quite finished and I have some bags of rubbish to go out, it looks SO much better, and it so much more comfy to be in! I've just hung out a wash, I've had my shower, and it's not even 10:30, so I'm doing well today (compared with usual Saturdays!) Gonna run up to the shop shortly and buy some foody things. Most of my day today (and my weekend, I think) is going to be dedicated to the forum monthly readathon, so lots of reading. It's also my friend's birthday today, and I drew her some wonky pandas on a swingset, based off her wonky doodle of some pandas she did at work. She loved it, although I think anyone else who sees it is going to think I'm mad and can't draw!

Just my two cents: Paper Towns is also my favourite John Green book. I would definitely read it before seeing the upcoming film, because a lot of what makes the book so beautiful is its poetic consideration of human perception and connection - a lot of which is not going to be in the film, because it's simply prose (thoughts/author rambling) in the book. Still looking forward to the film though because I am always happy to look at Nat Wolff's face for two hours

Few people seem to be starting All The Light We Cannot See, and it's been on my TBR for a while so I might start that shortly myself and we can all have an aul chat about it

You made great progress too! I had the day off work, and it was a super interesting book, that's why I got through it so fast! YES! It was fantastic. A little unpolished and a little too fast-paced (it was a 450 page book which should have been a duology - needed more fleshing out, more careful explaining and was absolutely interesting enough to fill a duology, BUT, it is a YA book, so I think that contributed, and as for the pace, I was able to keep up and I loved it. Really loved it. Now I'm reading The Last Leaves Falling by Sarah Benwell, which is a YA novel about a Japanese 17 year old dying of ALS, told from his perspective. So far it's very good. I suspect it will get very sad. I also just realised that even though its author doesn't seem to be Asian, the book being set in Japan TOTALLY counts as a cultural read. (It does!)

Haha I prefer chunkier reads, better for immersing myself in! But yes, I should. I've not read anything at all by him yet. And yes I upped my goal! At the pace I'm going, I'm gonna hit over 130 ANYWAY, so I may at well at least aim for something near that! XD

:exc: I looooooved that book, dodgy ending and all. Hope you enjoy it, it's a very divisive one! I finished Mind Games by Teri Terry. Tad unpolished, but despite a lot of poor reviews amidst the rave ones, I thought it was pretty great. Not sure what to read next, must browse my tablet-library!

Day 1 is not quite down, but I finished a book - I read 320 pages of Mind Games by Teri Terry. Very good read. Hope to pack in a few more pages of something else tonight.

Just a very brief review of my year so far, and my second quarter versus my first quarter. The orange numbers represent how many of the total are made up of second-quarter reads. E.g. I've read 66 books so far, that's up 33 on my first quarter total, etc. Read so far: 66/100 ^33 Reviewed: 52/66* ^4 unreviewed Abandoned: 1 ^1 *As per my previous reading review, I’m not reviewing rereads, or any series titles except the first in a series. I’m a couple of reviews behind, but they’ll get done shortly. Last quarter I didn’t review 10 books, this quarter I didn’t review 4. New paperbacks: 7 ^2 New hardbacks: 1 New ebooks: Dozens. I've lost count. Genres: Childrens/YA: 29 ^18 Fiction: 12 ^3 Horror: 5 ^1 Thriller: 7 ^4 Non-Fiction: 0 Short Stories: 1 Sci-Fi: 2 ^1 Fantasy: 5 ^4 Thoughts: I find it very amusing that I read 33 books in both quarters! I had no idea of that until I did the math just now! Also, as a result of having read so many books already, I've upped my reading goal for the year to 120 books. As I started back to work in May, I wasn't sure I would either keep up my pace or keep reviewing every new book, but I'm delighted that I've succeeded on both counts. I've read some new books in every genre except non-fiction and short stories. I'm kind of okay with that, as I'm really not a fan of either. I would like to get some historical fiction in this year, though. Naturally, my YA reading is through the roof, as that is officially my favorite category of books (mostly YA horror, YA fiction and YA dystopians. I will add a breakdown of my YA reading by genres at a later stage - I want to get back to my reading!)

Oh my god those graphs! I love graphs (who doesn't love graphs!) but so much information! That's AWESOME, Gaia. Congrats on the progress you've made with your goals, still plenty of time to make a dent in the ones you're behind on

To remind you of your favourite forum when you're reading! I know how popular these adult colouring books have become lately so I thought it might be fun to make some 10th anniversary colouring bookmarks, with a little more DIY involved in one! More bookmarks will be added (not all colouring or DIY, and not just by me!) over the course of the month. If anyone fancies having a go at making their own BCF bookmarks we'd love to see them!

I didn't know The King's Speech was originally a book! I must read it. The film is great!

Holiday From Real - Jack's Mannequin.

Overcast and warm (not very) but apart from a random couple of short bursts last night, none of the forecasted rain.